Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 7TH - 13TH DECEMBER 2018 | 11 Policy & Regulation "The experience of this summer, and the evidence of the projections, underscore the need to make our water supplies more resilient to a warmer climate in the future." Michael Gove, environment secretary The 15 largest reservoirs in England and Wales by area Rank Lake Area (sq mi) Location 1 Rutland Water 4.86 England 2 Kielder Water 4.25 England 3 Lake Vyrnwy 3.18 Wales 4 Pitsford Water 2.85 England 5 Grafham Water 2.85 England 6 Chew Valley Lake 1.88 England 7 Trawsfynydd 1.84 Wales 8 Llyn Clywedog 1.55 Wales 9 Carron Valley 1.51 Scotland 10 Haweswater 1.50 England 11 Derwent Reservoir 1.44 England 12 Llyn Brenig 1.44 Wales 13 Thirlmere 1.25 England 14 Llyn Celyn 1.25 Wales 15 Llyn Alaw 1.21 Wales Source: worldatlas.com sidering building an entirely new reservoir. The company's region has a rapidly growing population, and it is home to vital industry and agriculture, which all needs water to function. It's also very dry – receiving about half the amount of rain compared to the rest of the UK. Anglian head of water resources Hannah Stanley-Jones says: "In our WRMP, which looks 25 years ahead, we explain how we'll go about balancing this demand and supply of water in future decades. To do that we're looking at a range of options, including the possibility of a new reservoir in the South Lincolnshire and Fenland area. However, reservoirs are not the only answer. Stanley-Jones says the £20 million the company plans to invest in 2020-25 is not only to progress the planning work for these options but also to explore other new resource schemes such as desalination and water reuse. Alternative strategies Then there are those companies that are not planning to build new reservoirs at all, opt- ing to find alternative ways of ensuring a resilient water supply. Bristol Water recently dropped long-run- ning plans to build a £100 million reservoir in Cheddar, Somerset – nicknamed "Cheddar Two" – because it received updated informa- tion about the effects of population growth and climate change in its area. It also felt its new leakage reduction plans and work to improve water efficiency would be enough to stave off drought. Wessex Water, too, says it doesn't need new reservoirs. "We have no new reservoirs planned in our region," says a spokesper- son. "Thanks to our multimillion-pound water supply grid investment we can move water from areas of surplus to areas of defi- cit. It was commissioned earlier this year and helped us during the Beast from the East and the prolonged dry weather spell in the summer. Furthermore, most of our water is from underground sources, rather than reservoirs." And Welsh Water says it also has "no cur- rent plans" to build any new reservoirs. The company is confident that it has a "sufficient number" of reservoirs, which provide "ade- quate supplies" of drinking water to meet the needs of its customers "for the foreseeable future". Resilience is and always will be a hot topic for the water sector, especially as cli- mate change and population growth put greater pressure on water supplies. Whether it's by building new infrastructure or finding innovative ways of reducing demand, water companies must be ready. Kielder Water is the largest man- made reservoir in Europe by capacity of water. It is owned by Northumbrian Water. 200bn litres of water held by reservoir 11km length of the reservoir 52m height of the reservoir's dam 7 number of years it took to build, with 1,500 engi- neers involved 2 number of years it took to fill with water KIELDER WATER "Set that [a drought] against the cost of a new reservoir and frankly the reservoir becomes peanuts compared with the potential economic loss." John Armitt, chairman, National Infrastructure Commission Exceptionally high Notably high Above normal Normal Below normal Notably low Exceptionally low Percentage full Source: Environment Agency RESERVOIR STORAGE, END OF OCTOBER 2018

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